Another Soul

this was for my english class.. but it turned out amazing. please read all of this i know its alot but itll keep you guessing. tell me what you think.

              I looked at my easel with disappointment. My brush hasn’t met the touch of canvas in so many years. Since Anthony died, I haven’t been the same. My 76 years of age also put a toll on my heart, which affects my painting too. My career has come to a stop. I guess it works out though, the people who actually liked my work were loved ones and family. I never was very known.
              I was thinking about my day and what I should do when a pain crept into my chest. It made me stop and take a breath. It wouldn’t go away, I stumbled out side and tried to get help. The pain I felt was unimaginable to those who have never felt true pain.  I couldn’t see after that, my vision just all of a sudden stopped and I became motionless. That’s all I remember about that day.
              I woke up later in a daze. Not knowing where I was, I looked at my surroundings and saw nothing familiar. The trees were tinged a certain shade of green that just simply looked brighter than any tree I had ever seen in my time. The grass was luscious and soft, like in a magazine. I looked at the sky and my eyes opened wide. It was the most beautiful shade of blue I have ever seen. What was around me warmed me and made me feel as if I were at home.
              Then I saw something move. It took me out of my trance and I was stunned by what I saw. A person. I thought I was alone, but there I was staring at the back of someone’s head. And what’s that? Are they not alone? A few more heads come into my peripheral. I didn’t know what to do. I stayed still as if I had come face to face with a tiger. What am I even doing here and how did it happen?
              The bodies I saw started moving again. One turned around and looked right in my direction. My jaw dropped. How can this even be possible? It’s Anthony! Why does he look 40 years younger? He saw me and recognized the girl he once fell in love with so many years before and started to walk over towards me. I got up from the grass I was sitting on and met him half way in a bear hug. No words were said, only tears told me where I was and what really happened.
              My eyes were shut for a long time but when I opened them, I was inside a small room that looked so familiar to me. There was a couch in the corner next to a heater and a pull out bed. This was my living room in the 2020’s. The flat screen TV was in the same place I remember. But this room looked like someone was living inside of it every day for the past fifty years.
              “What is this? Why are we here?” I asked.
              “Well,” Anthony started. “When you die, everything kind of comes to you as the way you would perceive death to be.”
              “But what does that mean?”
              “Everything you thought death was like when you were alive, is what you’re going to see now.”
                “I’m not sure what I think about that just yet, I just got here and after six long years I finally get to see you again and you’re younger. I never thought death reversed time.” I said.
                “Six years? Aleesha, I’ve been here for six days.” Said Anthony with the most confused on his face.
                “Six days? That’s incomprehensible…” My thought trailed off as I tried to grasp this strange concept.
                We said no more words for a long time and just sat on the couch together when finally I asked “who were those people you were with?”
                “Some are my friends from Texas, others are yours from California.” He answered.
                “Just friends? Why not any family?”
                “I’m not sure why. But for some reason I feel that family isn't supposed to join us just yet. But anyways, would you like to see who is here for you?”
                I wasn’t sure if I truly wanted to because all this is so new to me, but I said yes involuntarily.
                “Then close your eyes.” I didn’t ask any questions because I’m sure if I did there wouldn’t be an answer and just did what I was told.
                I opened them a moment later to find myself outside in a group of 13 people. I recognized so many of them as the students I went to school with. Anthony asked everyone to go through and say how they remember dying. Some died in the war in 2053, one was a victim of domestic violence, and others were killed before their time was up. A few were killed in freak accidents, the only one of those I remember is how Ryan Parry’s fingernail got pulled off and he fainted on a huge bed of nails. No one really does know the way they’ll die, do they? We sat around and talked about each other and what we remember. I found it amazing that we could actually remember things from before we died. It really is true that memories last forever.
                Suddenly, something strange happened. I seemed to be the only one confused, everyone else was use to whatever this noise was. I looked into the sky and the beautiful blueness was gone, in its place were gray clouds. The trees were getting knocked around by the sudden gust of wind. It seemed a storm was starting to take place and no one was doing anything about it. Then a bright light occurred and then faded behind some trees.
                Just then, it all stopped. The weather was perfect again. The leaves stopped swaying and the sky turned back to its bright blue. It was truly extra-terrestrial how everything just stopped.
                “What just happened?” I asked, only for my question to be answered by blank stares.
                “It means that someone else died.” Anthony explained.
                I’m not sure why but this made me sad. Someone that I don’t know died. It means that their loved ones get to meet them, but others are in sorrow. Or the fact that they’re even dead, they must be terrified as I am right now. I came into this with a lot more understanding because of Anthony. But I still feel the grief for this person who crossed onto our side.
                “Are you ready to go back into the house?” Anthony asked me, freeing me from deep thought.
                “Yeah, I think I’ve had enough strange things happen to me for one day.” I noticed that it was getting dark.
                We arrived back at the house with a blink of an eye, ironically. Together we sat in the living room and waited for time to pass. I told him about everything that happened since he’s died and he told me about the way things work in this place. A storm starts to come up when someone dies and the more people there are, the worse the storm is. This intrigued me, and he went into detail.
                “Say if a car crashed into a bus filled with people, and they all died. For each person that is lost above a body count of 3, there is rain for one hour. So if 7 people died in the same accident, 4 hours of rain would hit us. I learned that from Jossie, who has been here the longest. She says that the most experience she got with this was when the war started. That’s when she met up with the four veterans who died outside.
              “Every person who dies, there is a flash of light. Only one person can cross into this world at a time. So after the very last flash of light, there will be another one for the second person, or for the third, and so on. The most that Jossie has seen is 29 from a bombing in Africa, she later learned.”
                I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This is amazing, I thought. This can all happen in one world that is so much similar and yet so much different than the one we all previously lived in. Wow.
                I stared out the window into the sky, realizing it was turning gray again. Another soul is supposed to join their loved ones again. Maybe even two or three. But I noticed something strange, the clouds in the sky started to churn and swirl, and thunder started to fill my ears. I got chills. Something bad was happening, I might be new to this fantasy but I still have my instinct.
                “Come and look at this, what’s happening?” I said to Anthony, who gazed out the window with the same look as I had.
                “I’m not sure at all. I haven’t seen this before. We should go ask Jossie.”
                We ended up in front of Jossie and the group of people we were with earlier was in panic.
                “What is this Jossie?” I asked with fright on my face as the storm started brewing faster.
                “I just don’t know.. I wish I could tell you but I don’t know! We need to get somewhere safe.” Jossie warned.
                The three of us began to go to my house when there was a flash of light in front of us. Someone we knew was coming to accompany us. Once the flash was over, we could see someone threw the light and they were lying on their back in the grass before us. We couldn’t make out who it was just yet so we waited a little longer. Out from the light arouse Wren.
                I ran to greet her with sorrow, she couldn’t come at a worse time. This is probably the end of everything, and here she is caught in the middle of it.
                “You have to come with us to a safer place.” I told her.
                “What is this? What’s going on here? I know what was going on a minute ago but where am I?” Wren asked in just as much panic as us.
                “Wait, what was going on a minute ago? You just died from whatever happened a second ago, what was it?” I asked quickly.
                “It’s the end of days! It’s the apocalypse! There is fire covering everything and building collapsing. All I remember in my area is a flood..”
              “We need to get out of here now!” Jossie yelled.
                We all ran into the house and watched out the window. There was another bright light in our area that we could see. It was too risky to go back outside so we all stayed put. The sky was being lit up with one light after another and you could each and every body that was being thrown from the sky onto the ground near their “homes.” There was nothing that we could do for any of them that are being treated so horribly except watch in awe.
                Just then there was a terribly bright light that was brighter than all the others. The rain was pounding on the roof top and the light was so much that we had to cover our eyes. And then everything grew silent. Silent and dark. An eerie dark that made everything seem scary. There was suddenly a knock at the door. Anthony went to go open it, he was very hesitant. The door flew open before he could get there and a figure appeared in the doorway. It had glowing yellow eyes and stood ominous covered in dark drapes that fell to the floor. The figure stepped into my living room and came into the light. I could now get a better look at it, but its eyes started glowing brighter when it looked into my direction, so bright that I couldn’t see anything. It started coming towards me and I couldn’t look away from its gaze that was casted on me. The lights that are now hypnotizing me caused me to fall to my knees and I blacked out.
                I woke up in a hospital bed right after that. The doctors told me that I had a heart attack and that I fell outside causing me to hit my head on the pavement. The only things that I remember from my adventure are those bright yellow eyes, and Anthony’s smile. They also told me that I’m lucky to be alive. If only they knew.